Remains Found chocolate in a pot of 3,750 years Mexican
Mexican archaeologists found waste chocolate into a basin of about 3,750 years, indicating that consumption of this substance is older than previously thought, said today National Institute of Archaeology and History (INAH).
The vessel was located in an excavation of Veracruz (Gulf of Mexico) in the holy site of Mount Manatee, along with sumptuous objects, at the time, such as greenstone axes, bones of turtle and venison, various seeds and jadeite .
carbon-14 tests determined that the vessel dating from about 1750 BC, and the context of possibly finding determined that its role was to contain beverages such as chicha (corn beer), porridge (sweet corn drink) and chocolate.
These were beverages commonly consumed by the leaders and people of high social status.
From this finding, by INAH researchers and several U.S. universities including Yale, suggests that cocoa consumption occurred in the so-called formative period (1900-900 BC), eight centuries earlier than previously thought.
The use of the drink, according to new data, precedes the evidence found in the Mayan areas of Belize and Puerto Escondido (Honduras), which placed the use of cocoa 1100 years before Christ.
This shows, according to the researchers, the consumption of drinks based on cocoa begins with the installation of the first sedentary peoples.
Cocoa was brought to Europe by the English after the conquest of Mexico. The substance, as written, was very popular among Mexicans.
The drink is prepared with ground cocoa beans cooked with stones and water, mixed with agave syrup, corn flour and substances such as annatto, annatto and vanilla, resulting in probably an alcoholic beverage for ceremonies.
